Sub-Saharan Africa is a confusing place, at least to outside observers. You’ve got a dynamic startup scene alongsidewidespread poverty and hunger. You have a moon mission in the works, at the same time that most of the population lacks passable roads. Some observers believe that these development gaps can be overcome through digital technology. As the Wall…
Some interesting insights by Citi’s Matt King recapping last week’s Citigroup credit conference. … [D]espite one panellist’s suggestion that “perhaps corporate bonds were never meant to be a liquid asset class in the first place”, and universal admissions that when you buy a bond these days you have to be prepared to hold it, there…
One of Pacific Investment Management Company’s (PIMCO) elite brain trust Mohamad El-Erian coined the phrase, “the new normal” six years ago when characterizing the future returns for equity investors. Basically after all his in-depth research, analysis, modeling and magic wand he stated equity investors would need to adjust to future returns of 5% or so….
Several months ago I posted an update highlighting my dividend portfolio sector allocation. It’s always important to be aware of your portfolio allocation. At times when building out a new portfolio, or a particular sector experiences unusual strength or weakness, balances can fall out of alignment and you can be faced holding a portfolio that is…
Photocredit: Shutterstock The best leaders in the business world could be noticed if everyone walked around with a blindfold, because leadership is felt, and not seen. Approximately a year and a half ago, I was hired at a startup. Why was I hired? Was I qualified? No I was not qualified, but the founder wanted…
Developments in the week ahead will be understood within the context of last week’s developments. The most important of these are the strength of the U.S. jobs report and cuts in growth and inflation forecasts by the European Central Bank and the Bundesbank. By two measures, the U.S. employment report was among the strongest since…
With interest rates still hovering at near zero, investors have plowed head-first into any asset class with a high yield. One of the biggest recipients of investor cash over the last few years have been master limited partnerships (MLPs). The corporate tax-structure for these companies is designed to kick out large, tax-advantaged dividends to unit…
Earlier in the week I posted the following chart on Twitter and StockTwits. In that post I mentioned that the StockTwits community was still confirming lower prices for emerging markets (EEM). Our algorithm that scores tweets for bullish and bearish sentiment now has the Twitter stream predicting lower prices for EEM as well….
USD/JPY The USD/JPY pair broke higher during the course of the week, going higher than the 120 barrier level. Because of this, I am a bit perplexed because we are without a doubt overbought at this point. I am looking for pullbacks to take a penny to value in the U.S. dollar, and I think the closer…
As cautioned in my Market Forecast last Sunday, stocks took a quick fall on Monday, but soon recovered nicely. Friday’s jobs report prompted some buying, however the S&P 500 SPX was still not able to break out. We did not trade much this week. We did a quick trade on GLD calls when gold bounced on Monday. Then,…
